Time Will Tell
by lotus-petals
Summary: The classic love story: Boy meets Girl, Boy hates Girl and harasses her for 6 years, Boy and Girl get sucked into book that takes them back in time... Okay maybe it's not that ordinary. It includes a new stranger who's from the future too, a witch hunt,
1. Times Change

Time Will Tell

Chapter 1

New Year, Old Grudges

Hermione quickly stepped of the Hogwarts Express. Her somewhat frizzy brown hair flew into her eyes, and she brushed it back with her long delicate fingers. Her eyes-were also a brown color. She narrowed her eyes against the sudden gust of wind that hit them. She felt sorry for the first years who would have to row across the lake, which at that moment reflected the slate gray color of the sky.

She heard Hagrids Booming voice cry, "First years over here," and laughed at the frightened look on the tiny first years. It was hard to believe that only five years ago, she was one of them, apprehensive and curious. Now she was a sixth year, she walked quickly towards the carriages that she now knew were pulled by threshals.

She glanced across at her best friend, Ron Weasley, he had grown alot since they meant. She didn't just mean his personality either, he was lanky and had to be atleast 6'3". The physical aspect of him that everyone remembers is his fiery red hair, which was like his personality, fiery and quick to anger.

Hermione looked past him, at her other best friend, Harry Potter, he had a haunting end of term. His godfather Sirius- the closest thing he ever had to a father- was killed by his own cousin Bellatrix Lestrange had cast the curse that ended Sirius' life so cruelly. Whenever anyone asked how he was doing, he'd answer with a short, 'Fine'. Everyone knew he was far from it. If a shadow ever crossed his face Ron and herself knew that he was thinking about his godfather.

They hopped into the carriage, being joined by Dean Thomas, Ginny, and Seamus Finnigan- who was as-of-late Ginny's boyfriend- something that Ron chose to deny.

Dean grinned and spoke to them all, "Hey can't wait for another uneventful year at Hogwarts." They- with the exception of Hermione- got into a long conversation about Quiditch.

After what seemed like forever- atleast to Hermione- the carriage pulled to a stop. They all hopped out and started to walk up to the castle. The castle looked like it came strait out of a fairy tale. It was marble-colored and was so tall that Hermione had to tilt her head up to see the tops of the towers. The gate was made out of a dark wood with etchings in an ancient language up it's edge. It read: Permissum totus quisnam sedeo hic exsisto tutis quod doctus vetus mores of veneficus. They stepped into the great hall, even though she had seen it for the past 5 years, the ceiling- which reflected the sky outside- still awed her. The hovering candles also gave a amazing effect. She sat down at the Gryfindor table between Harry and Ron, and sighed with relief, everything felt right at the moment. She was with her best friends who she would die for and they would do the same for her.

As he passed by her she heard a cold voice say, "Mudblood". She quickly turned around and found herself face to face with Draco Malfoy.

"What do to you want?" she hissed scathingly, what he saw was cinnamen brown eyes glaring up at him.

"I'm just reminding you of your place mudblood," he said giving her his trademark sneer. "That you're inferior to pure bloods and always will be." At this Hermione rolled her eyes and was about to give him a less then polite retort, when Dumbledore stood up and spoke.

"Welcome students new and old, to the beginning of term at Hogwarts now the sorting hat will sort the first years into their respective houses. I hope you all remember that though we might be in different houses we are all the same and need to work together." All of the Trio thought of 'working together' with the Slytherins and only Hermione held make a snort. "Now without further ado the sorting had will start the sorting."

The hats song was similar to past years, saying how they had to combing their strengths and work together in these dark times. Hermione felt this was true, despite her dislike of Slytherins- especially one particular one- she had to agree that Hogwarts was stronger together, then divided.

Then the sorting began, starting with Arielle Aaron, who was sorted into "Hufflepuff". She could tell by the growling sound and the look on Ron's face, that he couldn't wait to eat. After what seemed like forever, but was more like 20 minutes, the final person, Merrela Zacharias, was sorted into "Ravenclaw". Dumbledore stood up again, but as usual he was brief.

"In your hunger, my speech would fall an deaf ears, so dig in!" He raised his hands and suddenly in front of them there were platers of delectable foods. She saw pheasant, thick soups, and other delicious and somewhat hardy entrees. Finally the dinner disappeared and on the table there were desserts, like Baklava, Baked Alaska, and simple desserts like vanilla ice cream. When they were all stuffed and done eating, with the exception of Crabbe and Goyle who were like bottomless pits, Dumbledore stood up and the foods disappeared as suddenly as they had appeared.

"Welcome again students to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry," Dumbledore cried a twinkle in his eyes, which looked filled youthful glee, yet with wisdom past his years- which were many. "You all are ofcoarse aware of the rise of Lord Voldemort," At this there was a collective cringe from the crowd before him. "You must arm yourself and study hard to ready yourself for the dark and difficult times that are before us. Now on a different subject..." Dumbledore them began telling them about the rules like avoiding the Forbidden Forest- which was obvious hence the forbidden part- and bans by Filtch, including Weasley Wizarding Weezes products. After he finished, he dismissed them by saying, "Now, first years, follow your prefects to your common room

All of the little 11 year olds followed Hermione as she walked them to the portrait of the Fat Lady. When they finally got there- they had to stop because a kid got caught in one of the vanishing steps- she stepped up to the Large woman in the pink dress. The Fat Lady was chatting with her friend Violet and when they arrived, Hermione had to practically yell to get her attention.

Finally she stopped gossiping about the knight on the first floor falling for the damsel on the second floor corridor. No one cares, Hermione thought and wanted to say.

"The password is 'Break a Leg'," she stated, which was a very odd choice for the password, but who can really judge her about that.

Hermione wanted to be with her friends, but Harry wouldn't be here for a while because he was talking to Hagrid. Ron had disappeared mysteriously after dinner, Harry and Hermione had both presumed he was meeting someone. Over the summer he would zone out and when they asked what he was thinking about he would get all flustered and change the subject.

Anyway, since they were no where to be found, she decided to get a good night sleep and went up to her dormitory.

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In the morning all of the students sat at their respective tables, this time, Hermione was sitting by Ginny and Ron. That morning she had asked him where he was, but when Hemione asked him he turned bright red and refused to say anything. Professor McGonagall handed out their schedules and Hermione saw that History of Magic was first for her. She ate her meal of eggs and bacon and then stood up to walk to the History of Magic classroom. No other Gryffindors had gotten to NEWT level History of Magic, it was only her, four Ravenclaws, and, to her great disappointment, Malfoy. How he got into that class she didn't know, his father bribed them or something as equally distasteful.

Hermione quickly sat down at her desk got out a blank scroll, her quill, and ink. After this was finished she sat down and admired the classroom. The room was to gloomy for her taste, but it had incredible tapestries on the wall that depicted many battles and expeditions done by Wizards and many magical creatures. She was admiring one on the 1st Goblin Rebellion, which depicted their surrender, when Professor Binns spoke to them.

"Good morning students," he said in his monotonous and usually sleep inducing voice. "Our project for this new year will be on one century and what life was like for both wizard and muggles at that time." Hermione grinned, imagining Malfoy scrawling down information about muggles of any time period. "Now pair up," he ordered them. She felt dread growing in the pit of her stomach, because all of the Ravenclaws had paired up and were at the moment were giving her looks of great pity. She turned and looked at him and Malfoy said the same thought that was going through her mind.

"I'm not working with her," Malfoy insisted his eyes glaring at here coldly like it was her fault they were stuck together. Binns gave them a fatherly look and glided to them.

"Sorry students," he said his eyes almost completely closed with weariness, can ghosts even get tired? Hermione wondered. "I know that relationships can be confusing, but you kids need to work you problems out together." Across the room one of the room, a short petite girl named Maria snorted at the obliviousness of their teacher, I mean Hermione and Draco and . It was frankly rather sad.

"Like I would ever like an egotistic, prejudiced, jerk like Draco Malfoy!" she demanded glaring at Malfoy. Immediately Hermione was overcome with shock, she had never been so rude to a teacher.

"Yeah and Grangers too much of a know-it-all," Malfoy would have said mudblood as well, but he had enough common sense not to say that around a teacher who was loyal to Dumbledore.

"You'll have to deal with that, because my decision is final," Binns said, everyone was rather shocked because he hadn't been this enthusiastic since Hermione had asked about the Chamber of secrets in the 2nd year. "Now, get together and decide on your era. You projects are due in a month." He pointed at the board and the information about the project appeared there.

Hermione walked as slowly as possible to where Malfoy was sitting, she wanted the time she spent in his presence to be as short as possible.

"What era do you want to do it on?" Malfoy asked his usual smirk plastered on his face.

"How about the Renaissance," Hermione suggested trying to pretend this was just a normal school project and wasn't going to be the longest month of her life.

"That'll do," Malfoy said with a sigh, making it sound like it was a sacrifice. Though, in reality that was what he was going to suggest, but he couldn't agree with her.

"When will we meet," she said, suddenly her tone seemed business like. She might not be happy about the arrangement, but this was schoolwork, her specialty.

"During lunch so no one will see us together," this was more like an order that a request, think think of what it would do to his image.

"Fine," Hermione said after a few seconds of consideration, "I'll meet you in the library, after I drop off my stuff in the common room." Shortly after that, class ended, and Hermione rushed up to the common room, told the Fat Lady the password and dropped off her heavy book bag there. She went down to the Library and searched around for someone with white blond hair. She hated to say it, but he was F.I.N.E. Why oh why must a complete jackass be good looking? He had to be 6 feet tall, with a figure with lean muscle, much like Harry's, which made her presume it was a seeker thing.

He finally arrived, after her being disturbed by the fact she thought he was good looking for 5 minutes.

"Let's get to work" the coldness in his voice made her remember, once again why she strongly disliked him.

"Fine," Hermione said stiffly, "Tell me the minute you find something that might be useful." After saying that, they both started to search the shelves, Hermione in the Muggle History section and Malfoy in the wizard one. Finally, after what must have been 20 minutes of silent searching, Malfoy call her name.

"What?" Hermione asked impatiently, because she had yet to find anything useful.

"Would this book fit your standards?" Malfoy asked, handing her the book he had gotten of a nearby shelf. The title read, A First Hand Account of What Life was like in the Renaissance Era. The title made it obvious that it was going to be useful reference.

Hermione sat down at one of the many tables meant for studying. Though she never looked behind her, she could tell that Malfoy was behind her, planning on reading over her shoulder. She didn't say anything, though it bugged her quite abit because she was trying to avoid a fight which would use up the time they could be getting this work over with. She propped the book open, but before she could read a single word, what looked like a whirlwind came out of the book, except this one was the color of well-cared-for grass. She felt it sucking her towards it. She finally could hold on for no longer, she fell into the full force of it. She spun around and felt like she was on one of those muggle rides and was going to get sick. All of the sudden, the spinning stopped and she felt her self falling, if asked she could no more tell you the amount of time she spent falling, then tell you the meaning of life. When she did hit the ground, everything went black.


	2. New Aquaintances and Explainations

I have finally updated after what seems like forever. Are you all ready for some good news? Well guess what, I am going to update one story each day, it won't be much, only 3 or 4 pages, but you'll survive. To the two people who reviewed: I love you all, like a fat kid loves donuts. The more reviews I get, the sooner I'll update: )

Time Will Tell

Chapter 2

Explanations and New Acquaintances

_Normalcy is highly overrated_

Hermione woke up and stretched in her bed ready for a new day. 'Wait a minute,' she thought, 'this doesn't feel right.' The bed seemed lumpy and the sheets were to rough on her pale skin. She sat up quickly in bed, trying to find out what was going on. She was in a small room. It was rough with the only furniture being a tiny wardrobe made of pine that wasn't sanded out, a table, and the bed, which seemed to have stuffed straw instead of a regular mattress. From the ceiling vegetable hung to out dry. She was starting to remember what had occurred in the library. Someone entering the cramped room interrupted her thoughts.

"You're finally awake," a girl of about 16 said, with a tone great relief. She had long black hair that went to her mudpack. Her ebony tresses didn't look like they'd been cut in years, though they were brushed out. What really stood out were her stunning violet eyes, lined by long lashes. After a moment of looking over the girl, she asked the obvious question.

"Who are you and where am I?" Hermione said unable to keep a note of accusation out of her voice.

"My name is Alexandria Neci, though I prefer Alex," she answered, her accent seemed foreign- American- Hermione decided. "Before I answer your second question, I have to ask you one, did you read the book, A First Hand Account of Life in the Renaissance?" Hermione nodded and Alex got an odd expression she didn't recognize. "Well that book was cursed to bring who ever reads it into the Renaissance Era."

"Are you serious?" She asked and then without pausing continued. "I can't be stuck in the past, I need to be with my friends." She knew she was getting hysterical, but at the moment didn't care.

"I feel your pain," Alex said, trying to comfort the brunette. "I got stuck here when I was 13." That meant that she had been there for at least 3 years, Hermione calculated quickly. "At least you have someone to help you." She was unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

"Ok," Hermione said productively, she stood up and began to pace. "There's got to be a solution to this, lets start reading." Alex actually laughed at that statement.

"What books?" she asked amused. Hermione glanced around at the tiny shack. Then she continued, as if reading Hermione's mind, "There aren't any library's around here. Let's talk with your friend."

"Who?" Hermione inquired, without the foggiest idea who she was talking about.

"He's a guy," she said thoughtfully. "He's about 6 feet tall, with grey eyes and white blond hair, and he's somewhat attractive--." What else she was going to say was cut off.

"What do you mean, _somewhat _attractive!?!" Draco Malfoy said indignantly, looking very out of place in his designer clothes. "Don't you mean incredibly sexy?"

"Wow," Alex said in mock admiration. "You're modest too. You must have to beat the ladies off of you." To Hermione's surprise, instead of insulting her, he chuckled.

"Hello Malfoy," Hermione said, she said his name as if it was that foulest word she'd ever spoken.

"So that's your name?" Alex asked, stepping between the two, hoping to prevent the fight that was bound to happen if she didn't intervene.

"That's my surname," he informed her. "Though I'd prefer you call me Draco."

"Yeah sure," she said quickly and then turned to Hermione. "What's your name?"

"It's Hermione," she said impatiently. "Now lets stop chatting and start finding out how to get back to the future."

"The problem," Alex explained apologetically, "is that there is no where I know of to get the info we need."

"Hogwarts is around at this time." Hermione said thoughtfully. "Where are we exactly?"

"Actually we're in England," Alex told them. "It's kind of odd, really." The two Hogwarts students gave her confused looks.

"Why is that odd?" they asked in unison

"I was in America when I opened to book," she explained, the others nodded in understanding.

"So when can we leave?" Hermione inquired, obviously wanting to get back ASAP.

"Right after I pack and get us a ride," Alex said. "Where exactly is Hogwarts?" They both answered her questions, and then she walked out the door, the two trailing behind her.

"Where are we going?" Malfoy asked. At this Alex raised an eyebrow

"_We_ aren't going any where, _I_ am going into town to find some transportation."

"I don't want to stay here with her!" Malfoy whined and Hermione nodded her head in agreement.

"Don't be such drama queens," Alex said, rolling her eyes. She walked out to the back of her home. She then mounted her black mare- which had a white spot of the middle of its forehead and chest- and began to trot off. Before she was out of hearing distance, she said, "Try not to kill each other while I'm gone."

Both Draco and Hermione watched as she rode of until she was out of sight, around a corner.

"Well this sucks," Hermione said, trying to break the awkward silence that was making her extremely uncomfortable, and started to walk back towards Alex's house- if you can even call it that. Malfoy nodded in agreement and Hermione continued saying, "I'm just glad Alex is here, we'd probably be screwed otherwise."

"Yeah, it must have been hard, finding yourself centuries in the past with no one to help you," Malfoy commented, almost to himself.

"It must have been," Hermione agreed and then, having an epiphany turned and looked Malfoy square on in the eyes. "Look Malfoy, we should make a temporary truce, us trying to kill each other, will only make getting back harder."

"Fine," he agreed, sticking out a hand to shake on it, "But this doesn't change anything once we get back."

After that they were silent for what seemed like forever, thinking. Finally Malfoy couldn't take the boredom any longer.

"While we're here," Malfoy suggested, "We should probably get as much information for our reports as possible."

"At last," Hermione said, happily. "The silver lining of all this trauma." She thought that the Ravenclaws were going down, for their project would no doubt be the best. "While were on the subject, are you going to be in arithmacy this year?" They then got into a long-winded, and in some people's opinion boring, discussion on that subject.

'He isn't that bad when he isn't insulting your heritage,' Hermione mused. 'Not that I'd want to be friends with him, or anything like that when this is all over.' That was one thing that really bugged her, after they got back, chances were he'd go back to harassing her.

"Sorry I took so long," Alex said, stepping up behind them. Having been so into their discussion, they didn't notice her come into the house- if you could call it that- and jumped about a foot. "I got held up because I had to find the carriage driver, than old woman Marci asked my to write a letter for her."

"It's okay, I don't mind," Hermione said, then processing the rest of her subject asked, "Why'd you write her a note?"

"That's my main trade," Alex explained, giving the shorter girl a grin. "You'd be surprised how little of the population can read here. It was a little difficult, since they speak Middle English, but once I got used to the odd wordings, it was fairly easy."

"That's interesting," Malfoy commented, "I think I read about this some where." Hermione was suddenly nervous the apocalypse was upon her, Malfoy reading, and admitting it too!

"Anyway," Alex said, brightly. "I got us a ride on the back of a wagon out of here, which is leaving in a few hours. They can take us within about ten miles of our destination."

"Let's leave then," Malfoy said with a foot already outside the door.

"Not so fast," Alex said, grabbing his sleeve, "You guys can't go outside dressed like that. I picked this up in town." She threw Malfoy a pair of loose breaches and a tunic, both the rich color of chocolate. "And I'll find some of my old clothes which should fit you."

"I'm not wearing this," he said adamantly, disgust dripping from his voice. Hermione and Alex turned to see him holding out the clothing with two fingers away from his body, as if it was covered with the plague.

"You shouldn't complain," Alex said, then she a wicked grin covered her face. "But if you won't wear this, we'll have to go with the alternative: tights."

"It's okay, I'll wear it," he practically squeaked, then ran hurriedly out of the cabin, clutching the clothes, towards the bordering forest for some privacy.

"Hermione," Alex said, turning to the brunette. "Since you're so short, no offence, you should fit into the clothes from when I first got here." Hermione had never considered herself short, being only 5'4", but compared to Alex who must have been almost 5'10" , she felt pretty small. She noticed what Alex was currently wearing to blend in with the people in this era. Alex's dress was the emerald green of Harry's eyes and moderately low cut, without any special embroidery, but it gave off a simple elegance. Her shoes were roughly sewn leather, though you could hardly see them with her skirts.

"It's so beautiful," Hermione exclaimed, as Alex pulled out her dress. It was an ice blue dress with a lace up front with white string.

"I made it myself," Alex said, proudly. "Now unfortunately I have to introduce you to one other thing we have to wear at this time."

"A corset," Hermione shrieked, after Alex pulled out said item. She had seen people wear it at a renaissance faire, and it didn't look pleasant.

"First of all," Alex replied, grinning in a way reminiscent of the Weasley twins. "I prefer to call them 'Medieval torture devices', Secondly you have to wear it, since it's _indecent_ at this time."

After some grumbling and numerous threats against the inventor of corsets, Hermione was dressed and somewhat breathing. "How can you wear this thing?" Hermione asked.

"I may wear this thing," Alex explained. "But I definitely don't enjoy any minute of it." What she was going to say after that was drowned out by yelling outside her home.

"Lady Alexandria," A distinctly male voice called. "Where art thou." Instead of going outside, she groaned and sat down, preparing for a long wait.

"I hath guests," she replied bluntly, raising her voice so her could hear her through the door. "Cometh back later, or even better, NEVER."

"Thy words wound me," he said, trying to be dramatic, but only sounding pathetic. "I shall wait until thee comes, be it all day or night." Hermione figured he was trying to be romantic, but he really just sounded pitiable. Alex muttered something along the lines of 'stupid knight, why doesn't he just shove that sword up his-', well you got the idea, opened her door and stepped out.

"Look, as much as I would love to stay and turn ye down, again," Alex said. "I must depart." What ever he was going to say back, was cut off by Malfoy entering the clearing.

"Who's this?" they both asked simultaneously glaring at one another.

"A knight who can't take a hint," Alex grumbled softly, but Malfoy happened to overhear her. At about the same time as the said knight declared he was, 'The French (and noble) knight Orin.'

At this Malfoy said a couple of words in French, which made Orin cry with rage. "I didn't know you spoke French," Hermione commented.

"I don't."

"Everyone always remembers the curse words in a language," Alex explained, noticing the perplexed look on her face.

"Get lost," Malfoy hissed, shooting Orin daggers with his eyes. "Or else"

"I really wouldn't say that to a guy with a sword," Alex mused and Malfoy went pale, well whiter than usual. Than Orin began to yell out threats and challenges, most of which were incoherent.

"I don't have a sword," Malfoy yelped as he began to step forward, sword unsheathed. It turns out the 'noble knight Orin,' wasn't so noble as he rushed forwards attempting to decapitate Malfoy. Luckily for Malfoy, Orin was a horrible swordsman, in fact Alex had seen 10 year olds that fenced better. Despite this, Orin still clearly had the upper hand in this battle. Malfoy repeatedly ducked and weaved to escape the flying blade.

"Get away from him, or I'll shoot," Alex shrieked as she pointed an arrow at him. While they were fighting, she had snuck into her little home, and grabbed her bow and arrow set, she used for hunting- and self-defense if need be. Now she had it pointed strait at his chest.

"Thou wouldn't," he said eyes wide, clearly disbelieving that a woman was capable of standing up for herself.

"Hell hath no fury, like a woman scorned," she quoted Shakespeare and with one last glance back, Orin ran tail between his legs.

As you can see, I once again put in OC, I admit it, I have a problem! Hehe. Any way Hasta Lavista


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